


The Hand Fate Dealt

by DragonWyrd316



Category: Mass Effect
Genre: Angst, F/M, Graphic Depictions of Violence (for later chapters), Hurt/Comfort, Mature (for later chapters), Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-06-24
Updated: 2013-06-24
Packaged: 2017-12-16 01:53:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,852
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/856439
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DragonWyrd316/pseuds/DragonWyrd316
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Amairie Dobrov has been trained since she was a child to be a dancer in the Bolshoi Ballet, but fate deals twists and turns in her life that lead her down a different path and into the life of one Zaeed Massani.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Hand Fate Dealt

_**Mindoir – April 27th, 2170** _

River curled up beneath one of the apple trees in his parent’s orchard, his green eyes growing distant as he thought back on the events of the day.  School had been a bit more interesting than usual, most of the boys tripping over each other in the hallways trying to get a glimpse of the new girl.  What he had seen of her didn’t impress him much, from the slight sneer that curved her lips and the cool, aloof way she held herself apart from the others.  Perhaps it was nerves associated with being in a new school that caused her to act the way she did, but he doubted it.  Then again, he had heard her bitch about being surrounded by backwater idiots as she stalked by him on her way to the principal’s office.

Scrubbing his hand through his blonde hair, River’s thoughts turned another direction.  A smile played over his lips, bringing out the dimple in his left cheek that his friends teased made him look younger than he was.

It had been after his last class of the day, gym, and he had gone to grab his pack from behind the bleachers where most of the kids stuffed their belongings during class.  Warm fingers had wrapped around his wrist, tugging him deeper into the shadows.  He found his back pressed up against the hard surface of the plasti-crete wall.  Lips descended onto his, so soft.  The body that leaned into his smelled pleasantly of musk and honest sweat from the workout their gym teacher had put them through earlier.  Strong yet slender fingers tangled through his hair while the hard angles and wiry strength of a long distance swimmer pressed into him.  It seemed as if River’s subtle flirting with the captain of the boy’s swim team had paid off – he’d finally caught the other guy’s attention, and if River had anything to say about it this wouldn’t be a one time thing.

River found himself snatched from his musings by the sound of the rhythmic crunching of feet on dry grass.  Turning toward the cornfield that bordered the orchard, he saw the figure of the new girl dancing between the stalks.  She twisted her body in the air, launching herself almost effortlessly from the ground as if the soles of her feet held hidden springs.  Entranced, he leaned in closer to watch.  Her earlier attitude might have stunk, but the grace with which she moved spoke of years of practice and hard work.  Long black hair streaked with bits of blonde was pulled back from an exotic face that made him think of pictures he’d seen of gypsies, tendrils sticking to the nape of her neck from sweat.  Her eyes seemed focused with a steely determination that intrigued him.  Curious to see if she was nicer when confronted alone, he pushed himself up from the dirt, brushed off the seat of his pants, and approached her.

“I saw you doing flips in the corn rows.  You’re good.”

* * *

Amairie let out a shriek of surprise, her hand coming up to rest over her now pounding heart.  She watched the shaggy blonde haired boy approach her from the orchard next door.

“Sorry, thought I was making enough noise tromping through the dried stalks for you to hear me,” the teen held his hands out in mock surrender as she glared in his direction.  “Didn’t mean to scare ya.  Say, you just moved here, didn’t you?  Two houses down from me, actually.  Name’s River Shepard.  What’s yours?”

Amarie studied him for a moment, her heart still lodged in her throat from the fright he’d given her.  This sleepy, out of the way colony planet was the last place she wanted to be.   Thanks to the bitch of a teacher who had called to complain of her surly attitude in class, her father had admonished her about making the best of a bad situation.  Maybe talking to this kid would be a good place to start – if anything she could at least tell her father she’d tried if it didn’t work out.

“Amairie Dobrov, and yeah, just moved in yesterday morning.  It’s pretty,” she admitted grudgingly.  “Didn’t know what to expect when Poppa said we were moving to a little farming community out in the Traverse.  I’d rather be anywhere but here.  It’s just so… isolated.”

Taking a seat on the grassy divider between the different cultivated plots, River patted the ground next to him.

“You a gymnast or something?” he asked as she took a seat beside him.

“Yeah.  Not good enough to make it into anything like the Olympics, but was on a team back at my old high school in Philadelphia.  Helps with my dancing.”

“You’re a dancer?  Cool.  What kind?”

“Ballet, like my dad.  He taught me everything he knew from the moment I learned to walk.  He was principal for the Bolshoi Ballet before I was born.  I plan on following in his footsteps.  Unfortunately, I had to turn down the invitation in their _corps de ballet_ to come here.”  A sneer reminiscent of the one River had seen on her earlier curved her lips.  “Those bastards better hold up the promise they made me and Poppa that the spot will remain open until I can return.”  Amairie sighed, blue-green eyes closing, and let her head fall back, soaking in the gentle heat of the sun overhead.  “Everyone around here as friendly as you?”

Taken a bit aback at the rapid change of emotions, from friendly to bitchy and back to friendly again, River studied her for a moment.

“Pretty much, yeah.  We’re a small community so we tend to watch out for each other.  And when you’re living so close to each other, makes better sense to try and get along than be in a feud with your neighbor.”  He chuckled, surprised when she joined in for a moment.  “So why did you have to give up the invitation into the ballet to come here?”

“My mom.  Even with all the gene therapy, she still ended up with a nasty form of lymphatic cancer.  She’s past any treatable stage so the doctors suggested we go somewhere nice and peaceful for her last bit of time with us.  She picked coming to Mindoir – said she was curious what it would be like to live among the stars, away from Earth, and the farmlands brought her back to her youth.  Best of both worlds for her, I guess – the comforts of home with a little bit of adventure thrown into the mix.”

“Damn, I’m sorry,” River’s voice went soft.

“I’m not.  She’s been in so much pain for the past couple of years that her passing will be a blessing for her.  And if this is where she wants to spend the rest of her days, then this is where I’m stuck until I can go back to Earth.  I probably sound like a brat.  My mom’s dying and all I can do is bitch about where I’m at, but damn, coming here wasn’t my decision.”

“Yeah, I get that, just try to give us a chance.  We’re not the ‘backwater idiots’ you seem to think we are.”  His green eyes hardened a bit as he looked over at her.

“Shit, you heard me say that earlier?  Wouldn’t be surprised if that made it into the report my English teacher passed on to my dad about my rotten attitude.”  Amairie groaned, leaning forward to lay her head in her hands.

“I heard it.  So did quite a few others.  You might find tomorrow more difficult than you did today.  This might not be some glittering city filled with fancy restaurants and dance clubs, but we like where we’re at.”

“So, uh, any suggestions to make things better?”

“I’m a friendly guy.  Might not hurt to be seen hanging out with me.  And if the kiss I got earlier was any indication, my soon to be boyfriend is the captain of the swim team.  Befriending him would go a long way as well.  He’s one of the nicest people I know, but wicked nasty if someone fucks with him or belittles anything or anyone he cares about.  If you’re on his good side, you become more accessible.”

“Oookay… Good plan.  If you don’t mind me saying, it’ll be nice making friends with someone I won’t have to worry will spend more time staring at my tits instead of my face.”  She quirked a grin.

River let out a laugh, the corners of his eyes crinkling good-naturedly.

“Hmm, in the spirit of making friends, what do you like to do?” Amairie asked River.  “Besides kissing boys, that is.”

He flushed a bit, but smiled.  “I love playing rugby.  The school has a good team and we’ve kicked ass against the other colonies.  I’m also busting my butt to get the best grades I can and hopefully be accepted into the Alliance’s Engineering Corps some day.”

“So you’re a tech junkie?”

“Oh hell yeah!” River laughed.  “I can hack pretty much anything you set in front of me and make it dance to my own tune.”

“Why the Alliance, though?” Amairie asked, leaning closer to him, her forearms resting on her knees as she looked at him.

“They’re doing good work out there but they still need more people.  With your time being taken up by dance practice and school, you probably haven’t heard about all of the batarian pirate raids on many of the human colonies, snatching up our people to use as slaves.  I want to help put a stop to that and, once I get the education and the resources, work on tech programs and schematics that would enhance defenses, make communication between planets and colonies more effective and efficient, things like that.”

“Are we in danger of a raid?” she asked, her voice breathy with fear.

“With my dad in charge of security here, and some of the scanning protocols written by yours truly, not as much as if your family had moved to a different colony,” he grinned.

She wasn’t entirely convinced, but let the matter drop for the moment, her eyes studying the pre-fabs that housed the colony’s inhabitants.

“Well maybe you could show me around the area, help me change my mind about this place you call home.”

“Just watch, you’ll be calling it home yourself soon enough.”  River grinned and stood, reaching down to grab her hand.

* * *

_**A few weeks later…** _

“Spread out, boys.  Gregoir’s about to learn what happens when you steal from me,” Vido ordered the men around him as they crept out of the tall stalks of corn, approaching one of the homes.  “Stupid fuck thought he could get away with it too, hiding on a little backwater planet like Mindoir.  He’ll soon learn otherwise.”

The five of them found different entry points into the home, slipping through the building in search of their target.  Two of the men secured the building, leaving two others to check the rooms.  Santiago paced inside the kitchen, hoping this would be a quick in and out job.

“Hey, boss?” Vido’s comm. crackled to life as one of his batarian employees hailed him.  “I don’t remember Campbell having any kids.  You sure we got the right place?”

“Bastard either tried to play smart and make it look like a family home, or he hooked up with some dumb bitch to throw me off his scent.  I double checked my info and it’s good.  Keep going.  Check on the others.  They should be nearing the master bedroom…”

His comment was cut off by the sound of gunshots, and a grim smile highlighted the malice in his eyes.

“Sonuva… Vido, you’d better get back here,” the batarian from earlier called out.

“Haesop, you’d better not be wasting my time, or I swear to god I’ll poke out all four of your eyes,” Vido ground out as he made his way further into the pre-fab.  Batarians seriously creeped him the fuck out, with their multiple eyes and tightly packed rows of sharp teeth, but they were cheap labor which meant less overhead for him.

* * *

“I swear that damn stalk of corn stepped out of its row to trip me.” Amairie laughed, rubbing the dirt off the back of her jeans where she had landed on the ground moments before.

“Very diabolical, indeed.  You just never know what to expect from corn.  Next thing you know, you’ll find one staring at you through your bedroom window when you’re trying to sleep, grinning its huge kernel smile,” River teased.

“Oh now that’s just wrong, especially considering that my house is surrounded on two sides by corn fields,” she let out a tiny shudder.  “Besides, weren’t you supposed to find reasons for me to want to stay?  Not try to scare me off?”

“Hey, not my fault I lucked out with an orchard for my backyard.”  He grinned.

“Shush!”  She chuckled.

“Don’t shush me.  I may be two years younger but…”  He trailed off at the sound of muffled pops coming from the nearby pre-fab.

“Th-that came from my house, didn’t it?” Amairie stared over in the direction the miniature explosions had come from.  “Gunshots.  Those were gunshots, right?”  As the realization hit of what she had heard, the young woman paled and began to run back to her home.

“Amairie, wait!” River called after her, torn between running for help or following her.  Against his better judgment, he went after his friend, the two of them ducking down behind the window to her parents’ room, though not before the young woman got a good look inside.

“Oh god… oh my god.  Those men, they killed my parents,” she whispered through her tears.

“Shhh, don’t want them to hear us,” he murmured, pointing to the partially open window.  Nodding in reply, Amairie bit down on her fist and leaned back against the wall of the pre-fab, her eyes constantly flicking up toward the opening above her.

“Damnit, both of the information brokers confirmed Gregoir Campbell was living here.  What the fuck?”  The two heard a man raging from inside.

“Dunno, Vido, but what’re we gonna do about this mess?  It’s a small community, so everyone knows each other, and from that empty room near the front, these two have a kid who’s not here.  That means there’s a missing link,” Haesop muttered.  “It won’t take long for this to be found out.”

“Shit.”  Heavy boots paced the floor.  The man the others called Vido grumbled, “And you can believe someone will remember seeing us so it wouldn’t take long before this ended up being dumped on our doorstep.”

“I’ve got an idea, boss.  Some of my people have already been scouting the colony out for slave labor.  Maybe…”

“Perfect,” Vido cut the batarian off.  “Have the pirates come down here, grab up what they can, leaving this little mess to be considered part of the raid.  Should get rid of the missing loose end as well.  Get in touch with whoever you can and tell them that Vido Santiago, the leader of the Blue Suns, would be grateful if they assisted.  Perhaps even grateful enough to promote one of your kind as my right hand?”

“On it.”  Haesop’s heavy footfalls were heard exiting the room.

“Where are you, you piece of gutter trash?  You may have slipped my grasp this time, but I will find you and grind your bones to dust where you stand,” Vido snarled.  The two teens heard the sound of footsteps coming closer to the window and slunk down further against the outside wall.  Amairie reached out and gripped River’s hand tight in her own, biting down on her bottom lip to hold back the whimper of fear that wanted to escape.  Their eyes opened wide as they saw the tanned, scarred fingers of the Blue Suns leader grip the edge of the open window and heard the guttural sigh that soon followed.  “Better see if that damned batarian has gotten anywhere with the pirates,” Vido muttered.  Releasing the sill, he stormed out of the room after his lieutenant.

“Am, we gotta get out of here.  Warn the others if we can.”  River tugged at his friend, pulling her up from where she had collapsed against the wall, dragging her into the cornfield.  Once they were far enough from sight, he pulled her into his arms as she cried.

“They’re dead.  That bastard killed my parents, all because we moved into the wrong house?”  Tears streaked down Amairie’s cheeks.  “Damnit, I knew we never should have moved here!”

“I know, I’m sorry, but we gotta go.  They said something about batarian pirates attacking and turning us into slaves to cover it up.”

“Yeah… yeah.  No one else deserves what my parents just got.  But I swear to god, when I get the chance, Vido Santiago will die by my hands.”

“And when you find him, you let me know so I can hold him down for you, deal?”  River asked.

“Deal.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you PestoMonkey for being such a wonderful beta for this! Looking forward to writing more chapters! After so many months with no urge to write, getting this out was a beautiful thing.


End file.
